We are introducing you to the 30 legends of sailing. Now it is your turn to choose the greatest sailor of all time.
Joshua Slocum was born on February 20, 1844, in Nova Scotia, Canada. He embarked as a simple seaman on a cargo ship and had a rapid career: officer at 18, captain at 25, shipowner at 33. In 1884 he bought the brig Aquidneck, but in the same year his great love, his wife Virginia died, and Fortune turned her back on him: he lost the Aquidneck by running aground a coast of Brazil. Joshua, in order to earn his bread, matured the idea of sailing solo around the world, a feat never before attempted by any other man.
He completed it between 1895 and 1898 on the Spray, a sloop formerly used for oyster fishing that he had refitted himself. He became a hero, but perpetually unsatisfied except in the endless ocean spaces. On November 14, 1909, he left on his final voyage to the West Indies and never returned.
Because: Slocum was the first man to circumnavigate the world solo.
